What is the maximum number of distinct locations you can select on the surface of the Earth, such that the distance between every pair of locations is the same? Assume that the Earth is a perfect sphere and the distance between two locations is the distance traveled by a direct flight connecting ...

@msh210 I don't think it's commonly believed (by those who believe the story to be in any way historical) to have been an apple, but there's a ton of art showing the fruit as an apple. I have no idea why. I seem to recall that the Islamic tradition says it was a pomegranate.

I mean, maybe there's some sense in which apples are a sort of default fruit. (I wonder whether in, say, southern Spain it was more common for artworks depicting the Fall to show oranges rather than apples.)

Growing up, we had a perfectly polite apple tree in the backyard. always willing to lend a branch to anyone in need, and very easy to talk to. Not at all as you're stereotyping them. Maybe yours were just bad apples.

This answer was 13 seconds earlier, so I wasn't entirely decided on whom to give the checkmark; in the end, I awarded it based on aesthetic considerations (of the answer's presentation). Great job solving the puzzle, though :) — Avi23 mins ago

@Avi You normally give checkmarks to the person who finished it first, but without being said, I think you made a good call

It's not like Deus needs more internet points (ducks)

But like in all seriousness, Deus tends to keep his answers straight to the point, usually to successfully answer snipe

@North I don't try to post answers quickly solely for the sake of answer-sniping. (If I was really going for speed there, I would've left out the links.) I do enjoy posting fast answers, but I try not to do it at the expense of answer quality and usefulness.

But I have no complaints about Avi's choice - time posted can be a useful tiebreaker, but it doesn't have to be the method you use. Choosing either would have been perfectly fine.

Hello! I have some ideas for the question https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/92184/what-is-a-255b-word Even though I have not solved it yet. I have low rep(new contributor) so I cannot comment yet. This is my idea: 255 is 2^8-1, 1111 1111 in binary form. It is the maximum number you can store in an 8-bit integer. 'b' might mean either byte or bit. At least for the first group, the length of the words are the same, so storage's not it. Later, I wrote a program that calculates the sum of the ASCII codes for the numbers.

user418947

So you can only upload pictures, and here is my partial result in running the program on 255b words and non-255b words.

I come here with the challenge today-find the shortest solution!
Recently, I set out to created the longest helpmate possible, not caring for legality or duals I have created this monster as a result.
Black To Move-Helpmate In How Many Moves?
This is today's task-try to find the quickest way...

@Aaron I'm guessing due to the differences between the main lists and the CSV lists, and the presence of the steganography tag, there is more hiding in those words than just ASCII/A1Z26 values. So while it may end up participating somehow, I think the key to the puzzle lies elsewhere.

At any rate - a complete list of the values would be inappropriate for a comment, and insufficient for an answer.

Eight persons A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H are sitting in a circle facing the centre not necessarily in the same order. Their professions are dancer,singer,lawyer,painter, doctor,teacher, architect, professor not necessarily in the same order. Their ages are 25,40,45,29,66,24,21 and 34 not necessarily in the ...

From every trip she makes, my mother brings as a souvenir a well-decorated dish to hang in a wall. She has now a collection of 12 dishes, all disks of radii 1, 2, 3, ..., 12 inches respectively.
What is the least area of a rectangular portion of a wall she needs to set aside to hang all 12 di...

The integer numbers from 1-30 are mutually communicated to you one by one in a random order (one number about every 5 seconds).
However exactly one of those numbers is not communicated.
What is a good strategy to find this missing number?

Alright, that sounds good - perhaps the creation of a [puzzle-series] tag would be relevant where the definition is "A series of puzzles that are interlinked and have a set ending. Relevant entries can be found in [meta thread link]"

If such a tag is not already present

Either "A series of..." or "Part of a series of..." would work, I think

Update 2020-01-13
Given SE's firing of Shog9 and Robert Cartaino, I am no longer open to the option of returning as a moderator for the network. That ship has sailed at this point. I don't believe there is anything the company can do to redeem itself enough that I would be willing to re...

Please leave any feedback or questions about this FAQ on this other post.
Two weeks ago, we updated The Code of Conduct to directly address concerns over pronoun usage. We tried to anticipate likely questions, but… missed the mark by quite a lot. Based on Gareth McCaughan’s excellent post,...

[G]iven that supporting the Community is a top priority for Stack Overflow, where do you see the network going in the next five years, and what do you think should be done in order to get there?
To say that the community-company relations have been... turbulent lately would be a severe under...

Could we have a neutral summing up of the issues (without any editorializing)? I will attempt to do so in an answer, big picture style. Or you could think of this as "The Story So Far" for those who came in in the middle, or who are confused about what the heck just happened to Stack Exchange.
...

Your friendly neighbourhood moderators are fairly active in chat in The Sphinx's Lair, but we realize that we can only do so much.
We would like to add some new room owners, who will inherit certain privileges to help with moderation of The Sphinx's Lair.
A room owner has the following privileg...

Locked in an eternal struggle to impede the son,
By natural law, I am the true heir apparent,
I am voracious, but nothing will whet my appetite,
Until the day comes to reign over the masses,
From the very center I watch, calm but deadly,
Spinning my thoughts, poring over my plans of ...